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Sergei Mikhailovich Tretyakov




In 1924 Sergei Tretyakov made a lengthy visit to China where he taught Russian Literature and collected materials for some of his later publications. Tretyakov also wrote the controversial " I Want A Baby " or " I Want A Child " ( 1926 ) , which has seen recent perfomances in Europe and America. He was a key member of the contructivist group '' LEF '' (1923-1925) and '' Novyi Lef '' (1927-1928). Between 1930 and 1931 he travelled in Germany, Denmark, and Austria. Before he fell foul of the Authorities he translated and popularised other European writers such as Bertolt Brecht . Brecht was also familiar with Tretyakov's literary work, and even mounted an adaptation of Tretyakov's " I Want A Baby " .

Tretyakov was arrested by Stalin's NKVD on July 27 1937 and charged with Espionage . He was eventually executed later that year as part of the USSR's Great Purge . However, in the introduction to the English publication of 'I Want a Baby', Robert Leach says it seems that in a last act of defiance he threw himself to his death down the stairwell at Butyrki Prison . During the 1960's, Tretyakov was posthumously Rehabilitated along with many other victims of Stalin's purge.



SEE ALSO


Tretyakov worked with:


RESOURCES


By S.M Tretyakov:





  • "A Chinese Testament: The Autobiography of Tan Shih-hua", Gollancz , (1934) ,


  • "The Country-Crossroad, Five Weeks in Czechoslovakia", Sovetsky Pisatel , (1937) Hardback


Other notable performances:



External link: [http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/theater/content/Event.php?obj=87 ''I Want a Baby'' scenes performed at Swarthmore College]


REFERENCES

King, David : Ordinary Citizens - The Victims of Stalin (Francis Boutle Publishers), 2003 , ISBN 1903427150

Terras, Victor (ed): Handbook of Russian Literature Yale University , 1995 , ISBN 0300031556

Harkins, William E : A Dictionary of Russian Literature (Allen Unwin), 1957 (Although this book reports Tretyakov as having "disappeared from literature at the end of the 1930's")